Chapter Eleven – The one who kept her word

Zayaan frantically typed away on his keyboard when his phone on his desk began to ring with its alarm tone. Zayaan eyed the phone with his hands still on the keyboard typing the last two sentences of the article he was working on. The screen showed 10:20 AM and it had a reminder below it that said ‘meeting at café’. Zayaan sighed as he finished his article and turned off the alarm, dreading the fact that he had to interrupt his work flow to meet a girl. For a moment, Zayaan wanted to skip the meeting with a plan of telling everyone that it had slipped out of his mind. But he couldn’t, as he was a person of his word. Especially as he remembered the day about 6 months ago, on which an unknown girl keeping her word had saved the career he had now. He still wondered who she was time and time again. The girl who went out of her way to return his camera that had the work he needed to pass the interview though she wasn’t even the one who took it and broke it just a day before the interview. Zayaan hadn’t seen her coming to the office but it was a security guard who handed him the bag with the camera saying it was a young girl who returned it. He was thankful to her in his heart to this day. And he tries to live up to her standard of being a person of one’s word.

Thus Zayaan found himself going to the ground floor. Rain was as heavy as it can be from the sound against the roof and from the blurred vision beyond the glass main door of the building. Zayaan took a black umbrella from the rack on the ground floor before heading out the main door and opening it to cover himself from the rain. He was about to head to the parking lot when he saw a girl all by herself at the bus stop across the street. The girl wearing a black abaya and a purple shawl was half in the shelter and half out as she extended her hand probably in an attempt to get a cab. In the next instant, Zayaan realized who she was as he noticed the dark complexion. Saba. What was she doing there at this time of the day? He needed to know and all of a sudden, he forgot where he was originally headed and began to cross the street through the rain. He took wider steps as he reached the other end of the street because he wanted to reach her and help her out as soon as he could. When he was just about a few steps away from her and he was about to call her out, a dark blue car stopped in front of her. Zayaan stopped in his tracks thinking that she found help and assuming that it might have been a car belonging to a driver she knew. However, the way she leaned towards the car and spoke gave away that she didn’t know the driver.

“Excuse me, sir! I need to go to the school just a few blocks down this street. There is a little boy there who is sick and he needs me. Could you perhaps drop me there?” Zayaan heard Saba’s voice through the sound of the rain as she spoke to the driver. He dearly hoped the driver won’t let her down because for some reason, he didn’t want her to be disheartened for even a moment. But….

“I’m sorry but I ain’t got no time to be driving around some cheap girls who look like burnt victims.” Zayaan heard those words as clearly as Saba did and his eyebrows furrowed. Not just because of the rudeness in those words but as he realized that it was a voice he was familiar with. The words ‘girls who look like burnt victims’ brought back a memory to his mind. A memory from about 6 months ago. Zayaan’s eyes grew wide as he got stunned with the realization that he might know who the man in the car might be. He looked from the car to Saba. Saba was standing straight now, looking at the man in the car. Zayaan noticed the sadness that grew on her face by the minute, though he saw only half of that face. Seeing that sadness reminded Zayaan more of the talks he’d had with the man who might be in the car. Along with that, Zayaan was reminded of how Saba’s father had described what her fiancé had done to her. At that moment, Zayaan was close to sure that must be him in the car. His old friend who’d told him he’d got into a relationship with a black girl. He never took the relationship seriously and used to make fun of her among his group of friends about how ‘deeply’ she loved him. About how she said she would do anything for him. Zayaan used to be disturbed every single time he spoke about the girl’s feelings in a degrading way. He’d lost count of the many times he’d told his friend not to do that to her as even he felt the genuineness in her love for him. His friend had even proposed her for marriage but told him he didn’t plan to go. Zayaan advised against that and he actually thought he’d convinced him to do the right thing. Nonetheless, the scene that he saw in front of him told otherwise. Zayaan gritted his teeth even as he imagined his face. He heard his voice just then.

“Look at you. Still single and lonely after I left you. Found no one to love you to this day have you? Haha! I’m sure you are going to come back to me and beg me any day I’d like you to. You are that weak!”

Hearing those words, Zayaan couldn’t take it anymore. He punched him on the face in his head as he began to walk towards Saba. He’d wanted to defend her from him for so long though he hadn’t seen her. But now he will do it. He will do whatever he can to defend that innocent girl from his evil friend.

A rush of emotions overcame his heart as he took one wide step and covered Saba along with himself with the umbrella. He fixed his eyes on her, as he felt as though he’d known her for a long time. When she looked at him, he comprehended the sadness in her eyes as though he’d seen them forever. Because he knew the pain she had gone through all along all too well. That moment, he turned to his left to see the man in the car. Anger manifested on his face as he saw the man with gray eyes and straight hair dyed brown. The man’s expression faded when he saw Zayaan. He looked from Zayaan to Saba and then said a cuss word before pressing the window up and driving away abruptly. 

Both Zayaan and Saba looked in the direction the car went for a moment. When Zayaan looked back at Saba, she was staring blankly towards the road that was being bombarded with raindrops. Zayaan wanted to say so much at once as he looked at her. He wanted to tell her not to give a damn about what she just heard. That she was worth more than the words he said. That he knew just how much she’d loved the wrong person. And how unjustly she was treated. But at that moment, all Zayaan could ask was one question.

“What brings you here, Saba?” Zayaan asked in a calm voice and all of a sudden he was glad that he decided not to talk about her ex. The lesser she heard about him, the better. Saba took a deep breath but it was jagged so it did quite little to calm her down.

“I came to pick up Hamadh from school. He is sick and needs to be taken home.” Saba tried her best to keep her voice firm but it was shaken throughout her sentences.

“Oh….I’ll take you there then. Let’s go!” Zayaan said and they both began to walk to cross the street. Zayaan noticed that Saba was staying as distant from him as she could so he extended the umbrella further to ensure she was guarded against the rain though his shirt was getting drenched on one end. Saba was still too shaken to notice it because of the humiliation she faced from the one she once loved so much. It was evident to Zayaan from her face even after they’d gotten into the car. Not long before he began driving, he saw tears flow from the reflection of her eyes on the rearview mirror. Without even thinking, Zayaan found himself taking a handkerchief from the storage compartment and extending it to the back without looking there. Saba saw him showing the handkerchief to her as she looked up. She was stunned for a moment but then took the handkerchief from him.

Zayaan went into the school along with Saba as he was equally worried about the boy. He offered to take both of them home but Saba refused saying that he’d need to leave work for a long time if he did so. Zayaan agreed with that furthermore as he remembered he had to meet someone at 10:30 AM which was exactly the time then.

**

Zayaan happened to be 5 minutes late when he reached the café. He’d walked to the couple’s special table in one corner of the café as his mother had texted him that that was where Aleesha was to be found. As he reached the table, he saw a girl wearing a white top, a dark green floral skirt, and a light green shawl. Her eyes looked heavy with mascara and eyeliner even from far and she was applying lipstick with her eyes fixed on the small circular mirror in her hand. Words of his father echoed in Zayaan’s ears at that moment. ‘Cultural enough for us to accept her, modern enough for your liking’. For some reason, she appeared to Zayaan to not be cultural enough and neither modern for his liking. Either the ‘cultural’ his father meant was too modern or his taste of modern nowadays happened to be more cultural. Either way, he had a feeling that he was not going to like her and felt that he was going to have a difficult conversation ahead.

“Oh hi! You must be Zayaan!” the girl said gleefully as she closed her mirror and put it in her small handbag along with her lipstick.

“Hi….you must be Aleesha. I’m sorry I’m late. Something came up.” Zayaan said as he said right across her. This was probably the hundredth time he sat with a girl arranged by his parents and he was already ready to reject her just like the past 99 times.

“No no it’s completely okay. It gave me time to do some touch-up. You must have heard quite a lot about how I’d won beauty contests when I was in university. My parents can’t help but talk about it everywhere they go. And I can’t either!” Aleesha said that and laughed hysterically in a way that made Zayaan force himself to laugh though he didn’t find anything to laugh about.

“I heard a lot about you too you know. Heard that you were a photographer and also work as a journalist, must be quite interesting…” Aleesha said and just then, the waiter came with two cappuccinos and red velvet cake for two people. Zayaan looked at his serving blankly as they were being kept in front of him. Did she just….

“I ordered the same thing for both of us. I just made a guess that you would be having cappuccino….and then again who doesn’t like red velvet cake? You like it don’t you?” Aleesha asked as though imposing it on him. Zayaan forced a smile and nodded as he took a sip from the cappuccino though he hadn’t had one in months due to the strict diet he followed.

“Once we are married I’m going to make a cappuccino for you just like this. Or maybe I will have my maid do it. I make quite a mess in the kitchen when I get in-“

“Listen Aleesha I need to tell you something….” Getting the feeling that he wasn’t going to get a chance to talk anytime soon, Zayaan budged in. She lightly said ‘yes’ while sipping on her cappuccino and Zayaan sighed a sigh of relief.

“Listen….I’m sorry to say this but I want to be clear from the very beginning. I’m not going to agree to this marriage because I feel like I’m not ready yet. My parents won’t listen to me as they think me refusing to this marriage might cost us the business help your father is willing to offer us. But I don’t want to marry you just for that reason. We would ruin each other if we do that, don’t you think?” Zayaan asked with a genuine concern in his eyes. He genuinely didn’t want to ruin anyone’s life by forcefully getting into it.

Aleesha looked at him blankly for a moment and did the most unexpected thing. She laughed and all of a sudden, Zayaan was confused not knowing what to make out of it. After a few seconds, she calmed her laughter and spoke.

“I’m glad I didn’t have to cheat on you.” Aleesha said.

“What?!”

“Yes….I have a boyfriend in Australia. But I was forced to come here because of my parents. I told them I broke up with him but I didn’t. I thought of marrying you and fooling around with you until I can divorce you and go back to my boyfriend.”

Zayaan felt as though his mind was going to blow up because of what he just heard. But at the same time he felt an odd easiness as he realized that this meeting was going to be easier than he thought.

“So you don’t mind if I reject this proposal?”

“Nop! And don’t worry, I will try to talk to my father to still keep the business deal on with your family. But just don’t say anything until we pass these 2 weeks that I spend here in New Zealand. I came here for something else too, for the most part.”

“What did you come here for?” Zayaan asked and Aleesha sighed with a new degree of seriousness on her face.

“I’m here to look for a little boy. He is one of my cousin sisters’ son. She is a distant cousin of yours too probably, now that I think about the extended family chart grandma shows me…. Anyway, the boy was stranded here by his drug-dealing father with no one to look after. His mom is down with leukemia and she asked me to look for him and at least let her know if he was okay. He is a sick boy to begin with but we don’t know the situation his father left him in…..” Aleesha told the story gloomily.

“Sad….did you get any news of him yet?” Zayaan asked. Aleesha shook her head.

“Not yet but I hope to find him soon.” she said with a hopeful smile and Zayaan smiled too. He asked her to give him a photograph of the boy so he could find the boy too. But Aleesha didn’t happen to have a picture then so she told him she would give him later. With that, their meeting ended with two content hearts.

**

Zayaan went home early that day and he was easily able to tell his parents about his meeting with Aleesha. ‘It was good’ he’d said without falling into telling a lie.

As his mind was free from the stress of the proposal, Zayaan found himself thinking more and more about Saba. He’d noticed the bag of clothes that sat on the side table that night as he sat on his bed and felt an odd happiness as he realized he had a reason to go back to her again. Then again he’d wished he had more things to return to her just so he could keep going back to her. The thought of ‘things to be returned’ then again reminded him of the day he’d gotten back the camera he’d lost. His thoughts travelled back to 6 months ago.

**6 months ago**

“What?! You broke it?! Shamweel, the camera had the work I need to be showing in the interview!” Zayaan said as he paced across the room, being furious at his friend. Shamweel had been his friend since his last job at a not so famous magazine that his brother runs. Shamweel always appeared to be shady to Zayaan but he never had the courage to say no to anything to his boss’s younger brother. And thus he’d lent the camera to him that evening when he asked.

“Chill out! I can get a new one for you. It was an old version anyway.” Shamweel’s careless tone angered Zayaan even more.

“Where is it? Tell me! Is it beyond repair? Can the pictures be retrieved at least?” Zayaan asked.

“I don’t know quite frankly. But my girlfriend said she would do her best to get it repaired. She said that I should keep my promise of returning it back. As per the advice of some Prophet she keeps blabbering about. She said she was going to return it to you by tomorrow morning even if I don’t.” Shamweel said and Zayaan dropped onto the bed with a hopeless heart. For one moment he felt like trusting that girl. But who could trust anyone in this day and age. And how can he trust just a stranger with something so important. People just say they keep their word, they don’t do it for real, Zayaan thought as he hopelessly borrowed a camera from one of his ex-coworkers and took pictures of the neighbourhood. But he knew they couldn’t be compared to the pictures he’d taken when he’d visited Switzerland.

Zayaan had gone to the interview half-hearted the next morning. He knew he was not in much of a position of being selected without his best work in the broken camera. But then as he was about to go into the interview, the security guard in that building called out to him and handed him the small, white paper bag. It had his camera that got him his job.

Zayaan thought about that day as he lay on his bed that night. He’d given the bracelet back to Shamweel but he’d told him to give it back himself telling him that she would be in the library. Zayaan dearly hoped to meet her at the library but there was another girl on duty when he went. He’d returned it to the girl saying to return the it to the owner and conveying his thanks to her at the same time.

Zayaan wondered if it was Saba. If it was Saba because of whose promise his career began. If it was her who kept her word. He knew for sure Shamweel dated her as it was him that he saw in that car today. But he isn’t sure if he’d broken up with the girl who kept her word before dating Saba or if he was side-dating that girl. But for some reason, Zayaan felt at most ease at the conclusion that it must have been Saba who kept her word, and left an impact on his life, without even having seen him.